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05 April, 2008

New Church Plans Vival Services

Clearwater, AL-- Pastor Stu Creedence informed TBNN early Friday that Shamgar Baptist Church down on the corner of Pendulum and Fogerty at 1959 Fogerty Ave will hold "Vival" services this month. Services will take place from 6 - 8 pm each night for three straight nights beginning Monday, April 14th through Wednesday April 16th.

"Yes, I know it sounds like the typical revival services, but we are a new church so we are not going to be able to 're' anything. Since this is our first time, they can only be considered 'vival' services," said a proud Mary Lodi, pianist.

Doug Hawkins, part of the men's quartet, heard through the grapevine that Pastor Creedence plans to alter some of the words to the old revival hymns. Hawkins informed TBNN representatives of the potential change and we did some investigation. It appears that two old hymns will indeed be altered as follows:

1. Send a Great Revival in My Soul will be sung as Send a Great Vival in My Soul2. Revive Us Again will be sung as Vive Us, Amen. The last verse will be altered to: Vive us amen, fill each heart with thy love, may each soul be kindled with fire from above...Tom Clifford is very excited about the possibility of the Shamgar Vival. He hopes to see some real river baptisms. "I was born on the bayou down in Porterville and we had bayou baptisms all the time. Since the Green River is only 1 block away from the church, we can probably do some baptisms if the moon rises good. This Shamgar Vival is a great idea."

Some people aren't as excited about the Shamgar Vival idea as Clifford. "Call it pretending if you want, but I'm not going to stir up a commotion about the term 'vival', even though I feel the idea is all wrong," said Suzie Quinton. "The Lord is the one that's supposed to vive us in the first place, not the church."

In any case, you might think everyone would be happy to hear that the services will be referred to as a Revival in the Spring of 2009. Yet, there is some controversy. Next year, Shamgar plans to have the services outside.

We asked Ms. Molly Tyler what she thought. "That's unfortunate, son," she said. Then she continued with a string of almost spiritual questions: "If we have services outside, will we have enough facilities? There's a bathroom on the right side of the church, but the lawn is on the left. And besides, have you ever seen the rain on a church service? With our low lying property, who can walk on water?

Has Shamgar got this whole vival thing figured out? Maybe someday we will all see the light? Yet, maybe someday never comes?

Did you hear about Pastor Creedence's Clearwater Vival because you live up around the bend from Shamgar? Or, did you see one of the circulars? I can remember the 4th of July flyers from last year. I think those were the first announcements.